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Magic Kingdom
The Magic Kingdom is one of Walt Disney World's six parks and stands as the heart and soul of the resort. The park was the first to be opened and stands as the most visited place in the world. The layout of the Kingdom is that of the central hub (Cinderella's Castle) surrounded by seven "lands" that are based around different themes; Main Street U.S.A, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Mickey's Toontown Fair, Tommorrowland and Liberty Square. Each land is home to different characters who do their best to show guests a good time. Construction Although Walt Disney himself had been highly involved in planning The Florida Project, the Walt Disney Company began construction on Magic Kingdom and the entire resort in 1967 following Walt's death in 1966. The Magic Kingdom park was built similarly to the existing Disneyland Park in California. The Florida park, however, was built in a larger area and improved upon Disneyland's design. There are several anecdotes relating to reasons for some of the features of Walt Disney World, and Magic Kingdom specifically. According to one story, Walt Disney once saw a Frontierland cowboy walking through Tomorrowland at Disneyland. He disliked how the cowboy intruded on the futuristic setting of Tomorrowland and wanted to avoid situations like this in the new park.Therefore, Magic Kingdom was built over a series of tunnels called utilidors, a contraction of the words "utility" and "corridor". These tunnels allow cast members to move through the park out of sight from guests, maintaining the illusion of the show. Because of Florida's high water table, the tunnels could not be constructed underground, so they were built at the existing grade. This means that the park itself is actually built on the second story, giving Magic Kingdom an elevation of 107 feet (33 m). The area around the utilidors was filled in with dirt removed from the Seven Seas Lagoon, which was being constructed at the same time. The utilidors were built in the initial construction and were not extended as the park expanded. The tunnels were only used in Magic Kingdom because of financial constraints, but they were meant to be employed in all subsequent Walt Disney World parks. Epcot's Future World and Pleasure Island each have a smaller network of utilidors. Opening Magic Kingdom opened as the first part of Walt Disney's planned Florida Project on October 1, 1971. It was the only theme park on the resort at the time and opened concurrently with two hotels on the property: Disney's Contemporary Resort and Disney's Polynesian Resort. The park opened with 23 attractions, three unique to the park and 20, often somewhat different, copies of attractions at Disneyland. The Walt Disney Company promised to increase this number with more attractions like those in Disneyland as well as more unique ones. The attractions were split into six themed lands. Five of these lands were counterparts to those at Disneyland and the sixth is the unique in name, Liberty Square, it is unique because it shares the same attractions as Disneyland's New Orleans Square. While there is no individual dedication to Magic Kingdom Park, the dedication by Roy O. Disney for the entire Walt Disney World Resort was placed within its gates. Attractions Main Street, U.S.A. *Main Street Vehicles *Walt Disney World Railroad - Main Street Station *Main Street Theatre *Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom Adventureland *The Magic Carpets of Aladdin *Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room *Pirates of the Caribbean *Jungle Cruise *Swiss Family Treehouse *Shrunken Ned's Junior Jungle Boats Frontierland *Splash Mountain *Big Thunder Mountain Railroad *Country Bear Jamboree *Frontierland Shootin' Arcade *Tom Sawyer Island *Walt Disney World Railroad - Frontierland Station Liberty Square *The Hall of Presidents *Haunted Mansion *Liberty Belle Riverboat Fantasyland *Cinderella Castle *Dumbo the Flying Elephant *It's a Small World *Mad Tea Party *The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh *Mickey's PhilharMagic *Peter Pan's Flight *Prince Charming Regal Carrousel *Rapunzel and Flynn "Play and Greet" (Fairytale Garden) *Ariel's Grotto (Re-opening in 2012) *Be Our Guest Restaurant (Opening in 2012) *Enchanted Tales with Belle (Opening in 2012) *Princess Fairytale Hall (Opening in 2013) *Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (Opening in 2014) *Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid (Opening in 2012) *Pete's Silly Sideshow (Opening in late 2012/early 2013) *Casey Jr. Splash 'n' Soak Station (Opening soon) *Scuttle’s Scavenger Hunt (Opening as part of the Fantasyland expansion currently in progress.) Tomorrowland *Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin *Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor *Stitch's Great Escape! *Astro Orbiter *Space Mountain *Tomorrowland Speedway *Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover *Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress Planned Film Director Jon Favreau and Walt Disney Pictures plan to produce and release a film concerning a family at Disneyland which finds the theme park characters and attractions coming to life. Favreau, who said "the Disney iconography was probably the first set of archetypes that I was exposed to" and that Disney movies and attractions "made a deep impression on me as a child", noted that, "When I first heard about the Magic Kingdom film project, I was on my way to visit Disneyland with my family. I took notes and had no problem filling a book with all the ideas that this concept offered, even on first blush." Marc Abraham and Eric Newman of Strike Entertainment are scheduled to produce the film. Writer-producer Ronald D. Moore had previously written an original script for the project, which the studio eventually declined to use, stating that Favreau and a new screenwriter will develop a new script. On June 20, 2011, Spider-Man 2 story contributor, Michael Chabon signed on to write the film's script. Gallery Disney 2008 0493.JPG|Magic Kingdom's Christmas Tree Scan0003.jpg|Captain Jack Sparrow on the cover of the Magic Kingdom guide map 2005magickingdommap.jpg|Stitch's Great Escape! on the Magic Kingdom park guide Laughfloormap.jpg|Magic Kingdom's Guide Maps featuring Mike Wazowski for the launch of Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor 2007.jpg External links * The official Walt Disney World and Magic Kingdom website (http://www.disneyworld.com) Category:Magic Kingdom Category:Walt Disney World Resort Category:Disney parks and attractions Category:Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Category:Kingdom Keepers Location